Choosing A Social Media Channel to Promote my Art.

For some time I have been struggling as to how to best use Social Media to benefit my art promotion. By Social Media, particularly I mean: Facebook and Twitter; but also my Blog, my Website, and my opt-in email list.

For me, Facebook has been a mess. It is a very flexible tool, but as I have used it, it mixed family messages with my Art business messages. But recently Facebook has introduced its Fan Page which change the whole picture.

As a result I now have:

• My Website - which is a database of my recent paintings; a database of various articles that I have published designed for Art Collectors (potential Art Buyers of my paintings), and for Artists and others who are interested in how I create my paintings; and a database of older paintings which will soon be launched.

• My Blog - which I use to introduce new paintings; new articles of interest to Collectors and/or Artists; and occasional commentaries on Art related subjects.

• My Twitter - which are very short emails that go to self-selected followers of my twittering. I use Twitter to spread the word about new entries to my Blog; new events such as upcoming show openings; major changes to my website. Each brief twitter usually includes a website link to a longer message with more details.

• My new Facebook Fan Page - which I intend to be for longer writings about new paintings, website articles, new Blog entries, and discussions with other Art enthusiasts.

    One of the advantages of the Fan Page, is that a fan or follower of the page does not have to have their own Facebook listing. Like Twitter, such a person is a self-selected follower who gets to hear about my postings (usually by email messages), but may participate in writings and discussions on my Fan Page. Also, like Twitter followers, they may leave at anytime.

    At this time I have a mix of family, personal friends, and Art friends on my Facebook. I plan to invite each Art friend to join me on my Fan Page as a Fan, and for some, remove them as Friends from my regular Facebook page.

• My opt in email list - which I will continue, much as before, is for those who prefer this method of occasional communication. This list consist of people who have expressed interest in knowing of only the most important events of my Art life.

Now to invite people to follow my activities by one or more of these paths.

On Painting with Gouache

As I may have mentioned in an earlier Blog, the most popular page of my website is a discussion of how I paint with Gouache.

Starting in the middle of the nineteenth century and continuing through the middle of the twentieth century, most European & American artists painted in Gouache at one time or another in their careers.

Throughout the twentieth century commercial artists used Gouache widely. This association with commerce caused many contemporary artists of that period to avoid its use. And, until recently, few fine artists used Gouache.

Much of my early work was in watercolor. To increase the boldness of the colors I started intermix Gouache with my transparent watercolors.

This technique, with its resulting strong colors and sharp contrast, appealed greatly to me. Also, at about the same time, I started using a varnish finish and doing away with protective glass and its reflections – a big plus.

Maybe the general interest today in Gouache painting is due to it still being some what unusual. Now, I mostly paint in oil. But for some years I painted in Gouache, and produced many fine paintings.

I have been gradually enriching that web page on Gouache techniques with additional material and illustrations. Also, I have been adding to my website examples of my Gouache period paintings, with links from the popular web page to my web galleries of the Gouache paintings.

As I refine my web page, perhaps some visitors will look beyond that and see some of my more recent work.

My Website Updated.

Over the last few days I have reworked the galleries of my paintings on my website. Before I had them broken into just web pages of "Portraits," "Groups," and "Crowds." Also, the Menus were very brief and not too descriptive.

Now I have expanded the Menus. Hopefully they will lead a visitor to explore more fully the many things offered at the website. Also, the "Portraits" pages has been broken into "Male Portraits," "Female Portraits," and "Friends and Family" page sections. The "Friends and Family" pages are mostly paintings I given to, as it says, family and friends.

I will be watching the page statistics to see if visitors explore the website more deeply.

Santa Barbara Visual Arts Alliance

As many local residents and knowledgeable visitors have found, Santa Barbara County, California, is an art lover’s paradise. It is thriving with painters, sculptors, printmakers, and assemblage artists – some world-renowned and others are just emerging. In addition, many galleries, studios, museums, and art events feature the work of both past and present local artists.

I am a co-founder and Steering Committee Member of a local non-profit organization known as Santa Barbara Visual Arts Alliance (SBVAA). It has been around since 2001, and has a mission to promote, locally, nationally, and internationally, the rich local visual arts resources.

Funded in part by Membership fees, it is supported also by a small grant from the Santa Barbara Community Events & Festivals Program, from funds provided by the City of Santa Barbara in partnership with the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission.

Today, its principle contribution is a website with a database recording much of the visual arts activities in the County of Santa Barbara. There are recorded most local visual arts related events, galleries, museums, art venues of all kinds, organization, and many individual artists, many with their own studios. Thousands of visitors to the area, as well locals, use the listings to plan their explorations of the local art scene.

The organization has until now been run by volunteers. For a long time I have acted as manager and moderator for the website, supported by outside contractors who do the actual online posting of the hundreds of emailed art stories that arrive each month.

For the last few days I have been taken away from my painting to write a grant solicitation to obtain funds to bring on board our very first employee, an Executive Director.

Today I Updated My Website

Today I updated my website by adding five small paintings I have recently completed. I also changed the the name of "Interesting People" section of my Portraits Galleries to "Family and Friends." This new name more correctly describes these galleries.

It takes a surprising amount of time to do these updates, even when cloning one web page from another.

Website Mysteries

Coming from a technical background and having a lot of inherited stubbornness, a long time ago I decided to build my own website. The current website is the second or even the third generation. That path is a whole story in itself.

I read a lot about good website design, mostly on-line. Hopefully it looks good to you and is easy to navigate.

For some time I have used Adobe GoLive application (I am now on version 9) to construct and modify the actual website. I not much of a html/source code person, though sometimes I have to delve into the inner workings.

Most days I spend just a little time to adjust some small part of the website in the hope of making it easier to use, to to add a feature, more information, or to add a new painting. This afternoon went by trying to chase down a non-functioning link. Not a very productive effort. Lets hope tomorrow goes better.

No Painting Today!

Most days of the week, my routine is to paint in the morning, take a nap after lunch, and then work through the afternoon on promotion, this blog, and my website.

Today was different because this morning I had to have my pacemaker changed. The battery was becoming exhausted. These are some of the things that come with aging. I am not grumbling. Only a few years ago I might not have made it to be this old.

This afternoon I am going to add some illustrations to my On Painting Portraits article. I am always thinking of a better way of getting over my thoughts.